Glossary
Physical opportunity
What is physical opportunity?
Physical opportunity consists of external conditions that make a behavior possible or prompt it, including available time, resources, locations, and features of the environment.
How it fits the framework
COM-B distinguishes these conditions from the person’s skills and from social influences. Several barriers may coexist: someone can lack time and also need clearer instructions or a different reason to act.
Physical opportunity examples
A class that operates only during someone’s working hours presents a time-related opportunity constraint even if the person wants to attend and can do the activity.
Other physical opportunity barriers include unavailable materials, financial cost, and inaccessible locations. For example, a long journey to buy fresh food can make a planned meal harder to prepare, even when someone knows what they want to cook.
Why it matters
A person can want to attend a class and still be unable to fit it into the day. Looking at physical opportunity helps identify what the environment permits.
The original Behaviour Change Wheel paper provides this definition and the relationships between categories. Which constraint matters most depends on the behavior and setting.